Given
by berryfuls
Summary: He wanted to try and show her those emotions that she missed first time around. Because Peter Bishop didn’t go down without a fight if he could help it." Post Jacksonville; P/O; oneshot.


**A/N: Haha, yes I'm adding to the whole Jacksonville madness. According to iTunes, I've watched this episode 4 times plus when it first came on. That doesn't even begin to cover the almost kiss.... Anywho, I'm SO proud of this! Its my longest oneshot ever and I'm in love with it! I've been annoying my friends with little parts from it :D Oh, and the little ..::G::.. things aren't really time lapses as much as POV changes, and "commercial breaks." I thought it was cute... And I wanted to spell out Given!**

**I hope its good... I think my snuggie helped with it! Yes I own one. Its so warm! :D :D**

**lol, enjoy. :)**

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Their eyes were bright and eager and sober despite the shot glasses on the table in front of them. Their faces were clear and smiling and open as they exchanged silly stories of strange occurrences from before they met. Their laughter was easy and their hands were dangerously close to touching on the table.

But despite all that, she had to excuse herself halfway through their… date? Can it be classified as that yet? Or was it still just a friendly outing? Anyway, she had to excuse herself halfway through to collect herself again. Her face didn't show any of the usual telltale signs of faking. She was truly having fun tonight. He made this a fantastic evening for her and she really liked him for it. Wait, what? Really liked? …Okay, yes. But was it really liked as a friend or really like-liked?

And since when did she overanalyze everything and sound like a little fifteen-year-old?!

But collecting herself was a problem. Every time she looked at him, he glimmered. Just like the building. The Cortexiphan was still running wild in her veins and her ability would always be in effect now. Unless… Unless she wasn't scared. She wasn't scared now though! A little nervous because just she was on a …friendly outing… with her quite attractive co-worker. Huh. How is it that she always ended up with someone she worked with? First Lucas, who had been in the military with her, then John Scott, her partner, and now Peter who isn't exactly her partner but worked alongside her in FBI cases… Yeah. Something like that.

But when she was with Peter, she felt whole. As if all the broken pieces that used to be her heart was completely perfect again, as if it hadn't been shattered in the beginning. John had never made her feel that way. Instead, she had felt almost overpowered which she had mistaken for protection.

She looked at herself in the mirror and saw the eyes of a woman in love.

_..::G::.._

He leaned back in his chair as she wove her way to the ladies' room. He watched her go without a fight, telling his paranoid self that she would come back. She always did, from whatever task she set herself to. He admired her mental strength that countered his physical.

The one thing that he couldn't bring himself to ponder was how he was out with his beautiful partner that he had come this close to kissing just hours ago. He couldn't bring himself to feel the rejection she had unconsciously dealt him by pushing him away. And worst of all, he couldn't bring himself to put the feeling that he was going to try again into thoughts. But he wanted to do all of these things. He wanted to feel that feeling of need and hope that he experienced in those fate-sealing minutes. He wanted to feel that rejection because then he would know how he really felt about her. And he wanted to try and show her those emotions that she missed first time around.

Because Peter Bishop didn't go down without a fight if he could help it.

The tips of his long fingers of his right hand were rested around the small glass while his left checked the time on his phone. Ten twenty-five. The restaurant was going to close in five minutes. Five minutes before he walked with her back to his place and she drove away and they had to return to their lives. Five minutes before they weren't Livy and Peter anymore but instead Dunham and Bishop.

He didn't want that. So he smiled openly with subtle adoration when she returned. Her cheeks flushed light pink. Of all of his girlfriends in the past, Olivia was the one who had the most influence on him. Likewise, he felt that he had quite an influence on her as they returned to their light, easy conversation.

The place was slowly emptying until he stood up to. "Better get you home," he said, stretching. "Its way past your bedtime."

She smirked, standing also. "Really?"

"Yeah, I've heard that all little FBI agents are supposed to be fast asleep by eight. So they can get up bright and early in the morning."

"You should tell that to Broyles."

They laughed as they made their way back out to the chilly night air. It was a wonderful night in Boston.

_..::I::.._

She glanced at him, feeling a little nervous. His gait was slow and steady, like he was savoring these moments they got to be together. Tentatively, she took his hand in her own and didn't miss his quick smile. But he didn't pull away. In fact, he walked slightly closer to her so they their hands brushed lightly against their sides.

Her voice broke the comfortable silence. "Earlier… in the computer lab…" That moment had been stuck in her head all evening, regretting pushing him away. But she ended up saving a lot of people from disappearing, which is a lot more important. She stumbled when he stopped short but held onto her hand. As she turned toward him, his left hand found her right so that they were now joined by both arms. His blue-green eyes gazed intently into hers.

"'Livia, I was helping you. You needed to feel a heightened emotion. And I was happy to be the one to deal." He smiled and tucked a frizzy strand of her blond hair behind her ear and then slid his fingers back between hers. "It was Walter's idea."

Her light green eyes flicked wide in surprise. This wasn't going as she had thought it would, but this was probably better. "It seems Walter's been keeping quite a lot of secrets lately." She leaned forward and buried her face in the crook of his neck. Her hands dropped as he enveloped her in a warm embrace.

"What's that supposed to mean, Livy?"

_..::V::.._

He spoke those words casually, carefully covering up the wariness he felt. She was hiding something. Something important. "'Liv?" he whispered when she didn't respond. She just shook her head.

"I can't tell you."

Her voice was soft and heartbreaking to his ears. He brushed his cheek against her hair. Everything was slowly falling into place – the boundaries they would have to set up, what must be said and done now, and how much of the truth they wanted to say. His fingers found her chin and tilted her face up. "Please? You know I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think it was important." Her eyes closed to hold back the tears.

"You glimmer." At first he didn't get it. Glimmer? What, was he some Twilight vampire now? What did Walter do this time!? But then he slowly understood. In Jacksonville, how his own father had explained that things from the other side had a glimmer to them, to Olivia anyway. She opened her eyes and brought one of his hands up in front them. He watched, stunned, as she traced some invisible line around it with her finger. "Like the building. Like… whatever I saw back when I was three." She hesitated. "It's pretty."

An amused smile tugged at his lips. "Pretty?" That would probably be the first time he had been called pretty. "The glimmer is… pretty…"

She tried not to laugh. "Yeah. More iridescent than a lens flair but subtler than like a diamond." Her eyes stared right into his, trying to find more words to describe the glimmer. "Almost like the light around you is being refracted." A little giggle escaped through her mask. "Minus the rainbows."

"You'd be surprised how being told I look like I'm inside a prism doesn't really phase me anymore. Walter and his little… oddities have kept me expecting the unexpected." Unwillingly, they started walking again, forgetting that they had just randomly stopped in the middle of sidewalk. The Bishops' house was just a block away, and time was slipping from them too fast. His moment was fast approaching, so fast he wasn't sure he would be able to identify it. He took her hand again and she started studying it, turning it this way and that to watch the glimmer. It was getting brighter and brighter the closer they got back to his house. It got brighter the more scared she got. What Walter had said earlier echoed in her ears. _"You aren't that frightened child anymore. I thought all we needed a heighten emotion, but I was wrong! We needed a specific one! Fear!" _

He wasn't really paying attention but when she tripped over a fallen branch, his arms snaked around her waist subconsciously. Slowly, he put her back on her feet, two hearts beating quick, stuttering beats. She didn't want him to let go. Not yet. Not ever.

_..::E::.._

He sat her down on the nearby bench so they could catch their breath. After he calmed the adrenaline that had come for no reason –if she had fell, she wouldn't have gotten hurt- and sat down beside her, she just leaned her head on his shoulder. "Don't be mad at Walter, please. As far as he knows, you have no clue," she whispered. "I wasn't supposed to tell you."

"Hey." He leaned his head forward to look into her eyes. "I consider myself to be excellent at keeping secrets. Except…" He pressed his lips to her cheek. "Except when I'm trying not to tell them to you."

She didn't answer that, afraid something that sounded as if she didn't go to college might come out. She did have a tendency to do that sometimes. Instead, she tried to breathe as calmly as she could with his face only inches away from hers. Very, very slowly, he closed the gap and kissed her. He was surprised how innocent and pure the kiss was. It wasn't the result of excessive pleading from Walter, it wasn't her trying to feel anything, and it certainly wasn't just another nothing. After a few seconds, as he backed away, he realized that he was in love with her. As he looked at her, he knew she felt it too.

It was, put simply, a given.

_..::N::.._

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_**Soooo? Good? -uses magic author powers to make whoever is reading this review and favorite-**


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